EMC exec touts information analysis

Wisdom from a proud liberal arts major: “Data scientists — if you’re not preparing people for that, you’re not preparing them for the future.”

That English major, who graduated from the College of Holy Cross in 1973, returned to his alma mater to give a talk to the Worcester Economic Club last night. William J. Teuber Jr., who became vice chairman of EMC Corp. in Hopkinton in 2006, said he believes the next hot job sector is for people who can make sense of large arrays of raw data. For example, data scientists, through predictive analytics, can help investors properly value a company as soon as information arrives.

Finance, sales and technology can be taught at the corporate level, Mr. Teuber said. He said it was the communication skills and comprehensive knowledge of a liberal arts education that made the difference for him; “My father raised me, but the Jesuits made me who I am,” he said.

“Being able to write was instrumental to my advancement as an accountant,” Mr. Teuber added.

EMC has had a lot to learn over the past two decades, he said. It emerged as a leading player in the information technology sector — “the stock of the decade in the 1990s,” with share values rising from 25 cents to $110.

“We became more valuable than IBM at that time, and I learned a lot,” said Mr. Teuber, who was EMC’s chief financial officer from 1996 to 2006. “But I learned even more in 2001, 2002, 2003. … You learn so much more from the tough times.”

One lesson: Never stop innovating.

Even as the tech bubble burst, EMC continued to spend about 12 percent of its revenues on research and development. It has also been willing to spend on acquisitions of smaller companies that augment its product line or allow access to emerging markets. Asked about how EMC manages a takeover, he stressed that the employees who built the acquired company are more important than that company’s physical or intellectual properties.

“If you stamp out their culture and put in your culture, you’re going to lose,” Mr. Teuber said. “Every dollar you pay is for people. … If they don’t want to work for EMC, we’ve got a problem.”

When EMC takes over a company, Mr. Teuber said, it leaves the business largely intact, moving just one or a few key executives over “to inject some EMC DNA.”

He said EMC has also made an effort to listen to its own employees. During the economic downturn, company executives asked employees to suggest cost-cutting measures. The top suggestion was pay cuts, to avert layoffs.

Mr. Teuber said it is still too early to tell whether a potential breakup of the eurozone or gridlock on Capitol Hill will prolong the economic recovery. He stated clearly, however, that any instability in taxes and regulations hurts the economy.

“Tell me what the rules are and I’ll live by them,” he said. “One thing businesses hate is uncertainty. … They’re worried about the fact that we’re just kicking the can down the road.”